Scorpion
by Boann
Summary: After finding out about Scorpia, Alex never found out the truth from MI6 about what is father was really upto. Instead he has become an assasin. Yet something still feels wrong. Lots of angst and the return of an old friend thought dead
1. steel yourself

Disclaimer: Anthony Horrowitz is a genius and I do not take credit for his creations.

Two months ago, Alex found Scorpia and just as Yassen Gregorovich told him before he died, he found his destiny. Alex had found it difficult to follow in his father's footsteps as a trained assassin and to make him prove his loyalty to Scorpia, Mrs Rothman sent him on an assignment to kill Mrs Jones, the deputy head of MI6 and murderer of his father. Just before he departed however, Alex stumbled upon Scorpia's plans of Invisible Sword.

**Desperate to stop Scorpia, he made a deal with Scorpia. In return for terminating Invisible Sword, he would assist them in invading the headquarters of MI6 and wiping all information on Scorpia. Scorpia hesitated, then agreed. However, the plan would only be terminated after the information was erased. Nile was sent to spy on Alex to make sure he did the job.**

**Alex succeeded, but on his way out was caught by Mrs Jones. After a confrontation in which he accused her of murdering his father, he fired a bullet. Not looking to see what he had done, he ran out of the building and managed to get away from security forces following him. **

**Nile had helped him to get back to Scorpia. Impressed by what Alex had done, Mrs Rothman ordered the termination of Invisible Sword and sent an assassin to the man who had employed them to carry it out. **

**Alex joined Scorpia now as a fully fledged member. Although he was following his dad's footsteps, Alex could not rid himself of the nightmare that had occurred. He was a murderer…**

**Think this is all? Think again!**

**On Air Force One, Alex had watched Yassen Gregorovich die before his eyes. But Yassen hadn't died. He was alive. He escaped the plane and was returning to Scorpia…**

Chapter 1

Alex tossed and turned in his bed, his body covered in an ice cold sweat. He was murmuring feverishly to himself, though he was lucky that no one could hear him.

_He ran through a deserted street. It was dark and cold, lit by only a dim streetlight. Alex could feel his heart pounding in his chest and could see the steam coming out of his mouth with each exhale. _

_He stopped dead when he saw a shadowed figure emerge in front of him. He tried to speak, but nothing came out. _

_He tried to run, but no matter which direction he took, the figure was there._

_Who are you? He tried to yell. But his voice seemed to drown in the darkness. The next thing he knew he was on a bridge. Immediately he recognised it. Albert's Bridge. More figures stood around him. Three at each end of the bridge. No. No, it couldn't be. But it was. Two people stepped forward, exchanging themselves. Which one was his dad? Alex had to save him. Mrs Jones would give the order to fire any second now. He saw him. At the same time he saw Mrs Jones reach into her pocket to pull out a radio. She spoke into it. _

_No! cried Alex, rushing at his father. He was a mere metre away from him when suddenly his father turned around. Alex stopped as a face was illuminated. But it wasn't his father's face. It was Mrs Jones! She held out a gun, pointed at his heart._

_No! It's impossible! He turned around to the other Mrs Jones, whose face was brought into the light also._

_It was his father's face! His father was speaking into the radio. At the same time, he smiled at Alex and nodded to Mrs Jones. Alex heard a gunshot and was thrown backwards by the impact of the bullet careening into his chest. He flew backwards off the bridge into darkness…_

In his room in the Scorpia base at Malagosto, Alex's eyes snapped open and he shot up in bed. He was breathing as if he had run a mile. His sheets of his king sized bed were a tangled mess around his legs. His whole body was shaking, though not from the cool night breeze that blew in from the open French door leading to his balcony.

It was the nightmare. He'd had it every night from when he returned from Chelsea three days ago. He had returned a new man. In return for terminating Invisible Sword, he had erased information at MI6. He had wiped the memory banks of the computers and burned files. He had run over three miles and evaded even the highest level of security. But he had also murdered…he had murdered Mrs Jones. He had returned an assassin.

Every night he had experienced the same nightmare. It always took place on the same bridge his father was murdered. All of the plot points followed the footage Mrs Rothman had shown him weeks before of the exchange of his father in return for a hostage. Only instead of Mrs Jones making the order to terminate his father, she had been standing in front of him, pointing a gun. His father had ordered _his_ execution.

_What was the switch in roles say to him? That his father was the killer? Mrs Jones would kill him?_ That made no sense at all.

Alex looked at the digital clock on his bed stand. It was 4 am.

Sighing, he got out of bed and went to his bathroom-which was large enough to fit twenty people comfortably inside the bath-and splashed cold water on his face. He looked bleakly into the large mirror opposite the sink.

A boy stared back at him. Blonde hair, still messy from tossing and turning in his bed, brown eyes that were always described as serious. Although the reflection showed no change in his appearance since he got back from Chelsea, Alex felt a scarring change inside himself.

_Get a grip_, he told himself

The worse thing was, he could not afford to show how much the incident had affected him. Mrs Rothman, or anyone in Scorpia, would see this uncertainty as dangerous and would probably have him terminated. Alex thought about what this would be like if he actually had a father to confide in. But no, he reminded himself. His father was the reason all this had happened. It was his death that had set of the chaotic chain reaction.

Alex leant over the basin, suddenly feeling nauseas.

Find Scorpia. Find your destiny. That was what Yassen had told him. Alex had gotten more than he'd bargained for. He found himself wishing that Yassen was still alive to explain what his destiny was. Although they had barely spoken-only as enemies up until the plane- Alex felt somehow connected to Yassen. After all, the man had known his father; been his father's best friend. Alex felt lost.

He had no one. Not his best mate Tom. Not his guardian and friend Jack Starbright, who probably didn't even know he was still alive.

The only companion he had was Nile. He and the oddly coloured assassin had developed somewhat of a relationship, though both of them denied it. Nile was the one who had taken Alex to Scorpia. Nile had been the one to return him to Scorpia after the job had been done. Nile was the one Alex talked to most often. Nile had also tried to kill him on one occasion, before he knew of Alex's identity and the two of them chuckled at the memory now, though Alex had barely made it out alive. But even to Nile, Alex couldn't reveal his feelings.

He had work to do. Mrs Rothman, in a debriefing session the day he had returned to Scorpia, had told him that after a few days of rest and training, he was to be sent on a new mission.

Just steel yourself, Alex always told himself.

It was how he coped with carrying a gun.

Maybe it was what he had been thinking when he fired the bullet at the woman who had ordered the termination of his father. Mrs Jones. Probably the only person at MI6 who made him feel like he mattered. She was gone now. Alex hadn't dared look back after he had fired the shot. He had simply run away. It was because he hadn't wanted to face the sight of her falling lifelessly to the floor. To see the blood from the hole in her chest soak her grey blouse. To still smell the peppermint from her last breathe as she had screamed.

No loner being able to keep calm, Alex thrust his head over the toilet basin and emptied the contents of his stomach. He did it as quietly as he could, not wanting to even think about what would happen if he were found.

Steel yourself…

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	2. new assignment

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"Good Alex, good" smiled Nile

Alex stood in a cubicle facing a sheet of paper about fifty metres away with a silhouette traced on it. In front of him in two hands he held a smoking gun. Three bullets had pierced the paper. One at the head, one at the neck and one at the heart.

Nile was behind him, a grin on his face as Alex put down the gun and removed his ear muffs. "You're becoming more and more like your father every day"

"Thanks Nile" smiled Alex, trying to walk off the numbing sensation in his arms he always got when he fired a gun.

The two of them walked out of the gun room and into the cool air.

"Are you ready for your next assignment?" asked Nile

Alex nodded casually, "Yeah, ready as I'll ever be" he tried to sound confident.

Although he was quite excited to have an assignment, he still couldn't shake off the shiver in his spine.

Get a grip, he had told himself

He was trying to do exactly that.

Scorpia had been his father's family. Why couldn't it be his?

"I wish I could have known him" he said out loud

Nile looked at him and nodded, "I never knew your father personally Alex, but professionally…lets just say that was enough to make me envy him"

Alex took that as a compliment, "Do you think I could ever be as good as he was?"

Nile paused before saying, "Yes I believe you could"

Alex stopped walking and gave Nile a small smile. Nile noticed this and gave a cough. Alex wiped his face clear. Sometimes it was hard for them not to get too close. _Bonds are a weakness_, Mrs Rothman had said.

Nile gestured for Alex to continue on without him, "You'd better hurry. Your briefing session is at 0900 and you still have a combat course to go to"

"See you later" nodded Alex

He carried on a few metres and turned to see Nile heading back the other way. He smiled fondly.

AR AR AR AR AR AR

After combat, in which Alex had been tossed to the floor a mere 6 times in one hour by the trainer , who was infamous for knocking normal agents down 10 times in a mere 2 minutes, Alex showered and changed into black pants and a black sweatshirt. He walked down the main hall and knocked on a pari of expensive, reinforced wooden doors. He was aware of the camera concealed in the corner of the wall taking his picture, the pressure pads under the carpet he stood on taking note of his weight and the scanner in the ceiling above him taking note of his physical statistics and comparing them with information stored in Scorpia's databanks. After a mere ten seconds, the doors opened automatically and Alex strode into the large, exquisite room that served as Mrs Rothman's office and debriefing area.

"Morning Ma'am" he said briskly, acknowledging Mrs Rothman herself

The woman sat behind her large desk, stirring a coffee. Her dark suit seemed immune to creases of any kind and her lips never seemed to fade of their poisonous shade of red wine.

"Good morning Alex, I trust you have rested well after returning from London" she smiled

"Very ma'am" was his reply

His gaze turned to Dr Three, who sat in a rich chair not far from Mrs Rothman's desk.

Mrs Rothman smiled, "Dr Three is here on business relating to your next assignment Alex. Nothing to be concerned about. Please, do take a seat"

Alex sat in a chair opposite her, resting his arms along the arms of the chairs.

Mrs Rothman stood up and handed him a file, "Your new assignment isn't one that we believe will greatly challenge you Alex, but is one in which we require your…particular qualities"

"No one suspects the kid in the corner right?" smiled Alex

Mrs Rothman smiled again and perched herself on the edge of her desk, "Your target is a Mr Jack Tyler. Government official. Recently he has been found to be interfering in the political treasury, causing our client concern. He is temporarily staying at the Trouxdon Hotel in London-"

"London?" Alex exclaimed without thinking

Mrs Rothman raised an eyebrow, "Something wrong Alex?" she hummed

"No, nothing" said Alex, regaining his composure quickly, "Its just that…well, its only been a few days since I was there. Won't MI6 still be on their high horse about the whole incident?"

Mrs Rothman seemed content with that, picking up her coffee, "Alex, MI6 didn't care about you even when you were among their organization. Why would they care about you now? According to them, you are a failed assignment. Surely you should have realised that now?"

Alex looked at the file in his hands, "I do" he said softly, looking back up at Mrs Rothman, "And I will never forgive them for what they did to me…or my father"

The words rang true. Alex had found out the truth about how his father had died. MI6 had ordered his execution as they would have ordered lunch. Guilt still remained about killing Mrs Jones, but the anger inside him about MI6's betrayal was much stronger.

Mrs Rothman nodded, "You and me both Alex. But MI6 will no longer interfere. This mission is your one and only focus"

Alex straightened in his seat, "Yes ma'am"

"Good. Alex, any information you need is in that file. You will be leaving at 0600-tomorrow morning. One of our agents will escort you by chartered flight to Heathrow Airport" Mrs Rothman told him briskly

Alex nodded, "Okay, where will I meet the agent?"

"You will not meet him Alex, he will find you"

"Okay, will that be all?"

Mrs Rothman put down her coffee and stood up, "Not quite" she gestured to Dr Three and sat down behind her desk

Dr Three stood up and strode over to Alex, handing him a small, clear coin bag, "I want you to take a look at this Alex and tell me what you see"

Alex observed the object in the bag. It was tiny, barely bigger than an eyelash, but as Alex looked closer, he could see it was a computer chip of some design he had never seen before.

"It's a microchip of some kind. But it doesn't look like it was designed for a computer or weapons system. I can't say I've ever seen one of its kind before" he stated, handing the bag back to Dr Three who smiled

"The reason for that is because Scorpia is the only organization in the world to have used it" the Doctor said

"How do you figure that?" asked Alex

"Because it was I who invented it Alex" Dr Three said proudly, "And you are correct in that it doesn't look suited for any kind of technological system. It is in fact designed for a human body"

Alex looked at him, "What does it do?"

It was Mrs Rothman who answered him, "It is really quite ingenious Alex" she smiled, "It is a blocking transmitter. When implanted it renders the host incapable of talking about specific things, namely about Scorpia"

Alex caught on, "So you're going to implant me with one of those in case MI6 haven't completely forgotten about me?" he asked with a raised eyebrow

Mrs Rothman gave a smooth laugh, "It is not unique to you Alex. Every Scorpia operative has been implanted with one of these. It is one of the reasons our organization has remained in the shadows all these years" she smiled, "But yes, you are going to be implanted with the device before you leave for London"

"It is a fairly simple surgical procedure Alex" said Dr Three

"Wait, surgical?" inquired Alex

"As I said, it is fairly simple. And you will not be told where the implant is so that in the case of its presence being found, you cannot release the information of its whereabouts" Dr Three explained

Alex bit his tongue, then nodded, knowing he'd have no say in the matter, "No problem then" he sighed, "When do I have this done?"

"Dr Three will give you a medical examination and hopefully he can begin straight away so that you will be ready for departure tomorrow morning" said Mrs Rothman

"Great" said Alex, standing up, still holding his file

"Good luck Alex" said Mrs Rothman, picking up her coffee again, "Don't let us down"


End file.
